Many parts of textile machines become contaminated over a period with an accumulation of yarn debris and/or deposits of oils. In order that the quality of the yarn being processed is not compromised, it is necessary to clean the contaminated parts of the machines at regular intervals. A particular part may be cleanable in situ on the machine, or the cleaning may require the removal of the part from the machine. In either case it is usually necessary to stop the processing of the yarn, and it may be necessary to stop the machine and remove the part from the machine. This results in the loss of production time, which can be an appreciable cost to the yarn processor. The machine down-time is particularly lengthy in the case of machines having heaters that must be allowed to cool before they can be cleaned, and then must be raised in temperature before the yarn processing can be resumed. Because of this problem, it is commonplace to extend the periods between machine cleanings to the maximum possible, and this can result in considerable quantities of processed yarn whose quality is not as high as it would be if machine cleaning was more frequent. Furthermore, the methods of cleaning currently practiced using brushes and/or solvents may damage the surfaces of the machine parts and are unreliable, both of which can also lead to the production of processed yarn of lesser quality.